How NPS plans to change the lives of Nigerian prisoners

The Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) recently commissioned 239 vehicles, including 22 tractors and other farm implements acquired for it by the Federal Government.

It was, in fact, the first time in the history of the Service since its establishment in 1861 that it would acquire such a large number of vehicles at a time.

Looking at the vision of the NPS, it is worthy of note that amongst others, it seeks a lasting change in offender’s attitudes, values and behaviuor while ensuring successful reintegration of inmates into the society. This is not far from the global expectation of the penitentiaries, which focuses on the reformation, rehabilitation and the reintegration of transformed ex-inmates into the society.

Regrettably, in Nigeria, the vision of the Prisons Service had been subjected to daunting challenges, which have impeded the realisation of its laudable objectives.

The challenges faced over the years by the Service range from dilapidated buildings, poor infrastructure, prison congestion, urban encroachment, poor budgetary provisions, to misappropriation of funds, among others.

However, it seems the tide has turned now with the procurement of these vehicles, which came after the promotion of personnel, with some having spent over 15 years in their previous positions.

While commissioning the vehicles recently, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, who sought and obtained the approval of the Federal Executive Council to procure the operational vehicles and farming implements for the Service in the last quarter of 2016, said the procurement of the operational vehicles represented a “significant testimony to the Federal Government’s resolve to change the face of prisons in Nigeria.”

He acknowledged that the NPS had suffered neglect over the years and had to grapple with a myriad of challenges, including infrastructural decay and logistic constraints.

While lamenting that about 72 per cent of inmates in custody were those awaiting trial, he said it was a difficult task for the NPS to convey the over 50,000 inmates to 6000 courts all over the country on a daily basis.

“The slow pace of the criminal justice administration in the country and the attendant prolonged pre-trial detention of suspects have resulted in severe overcrowding in most of the prisons in the urban centres.

“The problem is further compounded by the limited capacity of the prisons to convey detainees to court as at when due, which often leads to prisoner restiveness and agitation,” he said.

The minister said the situation was unacceptable to President Muhammadu Buhari; hence the procurement of the vehicles and farm implements.

More importantly, the procured tractors and other farm implements are expected to help redirect the focus of the NPS in carrying out its core responsibility of reforming inmates.

Extension of the mandate given to the Service was to ensure that while there in the prisons, those that were convicted of wrongdoing are assisted to overcome their negative disposition by way of reformation through different regimes that have been worked out, including industry or education.

In 1974, a white paper was released, empowering the prisons to establish farms where the inmates could be given skills in modern farming techniques. The essence was to empower prisoners in modern farming techniques in addition to other vocations in order to allow them start a meaningful life after leaving the prisons.

There are over 70,000 prisoners in custody, and over 80 per cent of them are in their youthful ages. Keeping this large population idle in one place makes no economic sense to a country currently struggling with recession. To imagine that these large populations are being fed with taxpayers’ hard-earned money makes the situation more disturbing.

It was against this backdrop that the Federal Government mooted the establishment of prison farm centres in 1976. Ten were established that year, but others came on board along the line. Sixteen farm centres are located in different states across the country, including Adim in Cross Rivers State; Elele in Rivers State; Ibitolo in Enugu; Ozalla in Edo State; Kujama in Kaduna State; Bisla in Sokoto State; Brinkudu in Jigawa State; Maiduguri in Borno State; Jataka and Iga Opeha in Benue State; Dopka in Gwagwalada, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Ago-Iwoye in Ogun State.

Also, there are other agric projects, with most of them attached to large prisons.

The Public Relations Officer of the NPS, Francis Enobore, told Daily Trust on Sunday that: “We have piggery attached to Enugu Prisons, poultry attached to Owerri, Ilorin and Kuje prisons, fishery attached to Minna Prison, an agric project in Lafiaji and the open camp in Kaduna and a couple of other places.”

“In 1976, the 10 farm centres established were given the power to take in prisoners that had served part of their sentences in conventional prisons and probably had about six months to complete their terms, take them in and give them different orientations in animal husbandry, crop production, crop processing, calibrating, agro-chemicals, tractor maintenance, amongst others.

“When they are discharged, we normally assist them with improved seeds to set up their own farms, and when inmates specialise in livestock production, we assist in providing foundation stock,” Enobore explained.

He said they had always been having prisoners in the farm centres, but the issue was with the dwindling investment in the area of machinery.

“The original concept was not to take the inmates to the farms to use the traditional method of farming. They were called mechanised farm centres because they were to have their operations almost fully mechanised.

“Overtime, the dwindling investment from the government made it almost impossible to go into meaningful production, to the extent that at a point, none of these farm centres could boast of cultivating more than 20 per cent of the available land.

“Different projects that were running at the various farm centres were also affected. Those that were combining four to five projects dwindled to one, while those still in existence were basically manual,” he added.

With the procurement of the new tools, the public relations officer said the output of the farms would definitely increase. “The number of hectares the farms will be cultivating will increase, which will consequently increase output,” he said.

Enobore also revealed that instead of distributing the new farm equipment amongst all the farm centres and agric projects without having substantial output, “we will rather concentrate most of what we have now to three selected farms that will serve as pilot projects.

“The Kujama Farm Centre will be dedicated to maize production. And the reason is obvious - the farm is situated in a grain bed of over 1000 hectares of land, and by the time the tractor moves in, we will be able to go into meaningful production.

“The Lakushi Farm Centre in Plateau State is among the first centres established in 1976. It has been dedicated to the production of rice because it is in a Fadama land.

“The third is the Ozalla Farm Centre in Edo State, which will be dedicated to production of palm oil because the terrain is along the rain bed area that favours the production of oil palm.”

This move will no doubt, help empower the inmates in modern technology, generate the substantial quantity of the food they will eat while the excess will be sold to the general public.

This was also reechoed by the minister of interior when he noted that: “The 22 tractors and the accompanying equipment will scale up the production capacity of prison farm centres. The projection is to make maximum utilisation of available land and human resources in the production of food for prisoners’ consumption and sale to the general public, ultimately reducing the financial burden on the Federal Government.

“In a way, the NPS is also making it possible to contribute in line with government’s policy of economic diversification towards agriculture.”

On his part, the Controller-General of Prisons Ja’afaru Ahmed, said the tractors and other relevant implements procured would address the drudgery hitherto associated with the prison farms.

“You may wish to know that the NPS has 16 farm centres and a plethora of agric projects attached to many of our prisons across the country. Unfortunately, none of these farm centres utilizes up to 20 per cent of available land due to the dearth of machinery.

“The intervention will boost training activities and food production in line with the ultimate goal of putting the army of youths in the prison into viable ventures. It is also the vision of the management to source significant quantity of food for feeding inmates and generating revenue for the government,” he said.

It is hoped that with these interventions, the inmates would henceforth begin to go through genuine reformation while in prison custody.

Besides, it is also expected that the continuous running battle between food contractors and the Federal Government over the feeding of inmates would come to an end as the substantial part of food to feed inmates will now be gotten from the farms. The government can, therefore, redirect the several millions being paid to food contractors to other meaningful developmental projects.

Nigerians expect that the NPS, through its farm centres, would help increase food production while also contributing to Nigeria’s export in no distant time.

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